A Portrait of Charles Lamb

London: Constable. Very Good. 1983. Soft Cover. 0094670501 Colour & b/w illustrations. 192 pages clean and tight. Charles Lamb, like Johnson and Byron, was equally memorable for his personality and for his writings. This personality was a curious and fascinating mixture: fantastic and homely, childlike and wise, pensively romantic and exuberantly humorous (responsive, to the attraction of the quaint and antique and also to the hustle and vitality of contemporary London). Charm and genius, brought him to the centre of that Romantic Movement that was revolutionising literary England: he was the intimate friend of its two leaders Coleridge and Wordsworth; and himself became famous as a talker. But there was another side to Lamb's life: From an early age he was involved in a terrible family, drama of madness and murder which added another and tragic element to the complexity of his personality. David Cecil recreates that personality, and the reader is entranced as the incidents of a strange life story unfold. really delightful . _ . his rare and magical charm as a writer seems perfectly undiminished ...;There is moreover an extraordinary personal rapport between author and subject.' Richard Holmes, The Times a vivid and sympathetic portrait.' Peter Quennell, Sunday Telegraph ... now we can recall the freakish little half-genius as clearly as if we had known him personally.' Margaret Lane, Daily Telegraph .